Discussion

Shortbread Placecards

I have a fun idea for placecards at my wedding but I'm trying to figure out how feasible it would be and how to best execute it. I would love to do something edible so I was thinking of getting number-shaped cookie cutters and doing shortbread placecards. The names would be written on the number so you'd find your name, and the number of your cookie is your table number (our wedding is small so 9 table numbers would probably be the max). I guess my concern is writing the names on the cookies since the text would need to be small. I'm not the most gifted when it comes to lettering with writing, but I've also never had great tools. Is it feasible to take this on if I get a fine point icing tip? What about those edible markers? My concern with those is whether they would write on the surface of shortbread -- I'd probably need to put a layer of icing on it first, I guess. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated!

If I were concerned with writing 60+ names legibly I'd either use a cricut cake to make the names and set them on top of royal icing and finish them with a border or have a local bakery who does photo cakes make the names for me and cut them out to fit & finish.

How many people and how large will the cookies be? Do you want both first and last names? I'm a calligrapher and decorate cakes so if you provide more information, I might be able to help. If I had to write first and last names and pipe it, I'd want the cookies to be at least 8", at the smallest and that would be pushing it. I can't imagine doing it for a lot of people though. It's time consuming enough in pen and ink on paper.

You could buy new rubber stamps and stamp the names into the dough before baking. I think this would be the easiest way to make them legible. Be sure to chill the dough before baking to maintain the letters.

I was looking for something similar on Etsy a couple of months ago for a friend's baby shower. A lot of the people that make them there use the printable transfer sheets to put the names over onto the icing. Here are a couple of examples: